Is insurance just a big scam?

Lawyers.

I have a policy where if any of my four vehicles get stolen I will be able to replace it with something similiar, so we don't need this protection? Go with....oh well it's gone.....well?

Nobody likes to pay for insurance because we always figure bad things only happen to other people, not us. However, if you knew what medical costs actually were you would never take that chance. For example, several years back I had a procedure for prostate cancer and it was an outpatient. Got one of the bills and one item was "facility fee - $46,000". I don't have a clue what that was for, as I was only at the facility for 3 hours from beginning to end. Insurance paid it at $26,000 and I didn't have to pay anything after my deductible. I never did tally the entire bill but I suspect it was in the $150k range. House got damaged in hurricane Katrina to the tune of $76,000. Washing machine fill didn't shut off and resulted in $13K in hardwood floor damage. So, now I never complain about paying insurance; however, to all of you that have never had any bad things happen you yet still paid in for a lifetime, congratulations, and thanks for paying for my bad days.

He still won't say where he lives. Wonder why that is. Tornado alley?

Protect your own property. If you own four vehicles you obviously are not keeping an eye on all four close enough. If you are diligently protecting your property, and you still get them stolen, and can't afford to replace your four vehicles, then you should consider whether or not you can truly afford them.

Except insurance. Different model, there is no such thing as better insurance per se. We pay them, they pocket money and spread risk. Thats the dark underbelly of capitalism. Capitalism doesnt work for necessities. You cant have someone beholden to maximizing shareholder profits and susceptible to suddenly going out of business (and other basic tenets of capitalism) if they handle water treatment? Or the Military? How does a trillion in profit make the insurance industry a better product? It doesnt. They dont have a product.

We have Medicare because capitalism has winners and losers, and we cant have 75% of the population with no insurance when they retire. Capitalism didnt work. It works great for TVs and cars and hotels.

I am retired insurance sales, sold health insurance.

Without insurance so many people would have been been financially ruined. If ya own property you will have to sell it. So for anyone to talk about how insurance is some scam knows nothing about the real world out there.

I sold a policy that had a big 5000 deductable, it kicked in at over 5000, this was to protection a person from that huge massive bill they can't pay. Most can handle a broken arm, maybe an over night stay in a hospital, but that really is about it for most people. Something like cancer would simply wipe you out without insurance.

It's wiping people out because of insurance. You are just too dumb to realize it.

Insurance salesman. Big surprise there.

Dude, what are you 14?

Bone up on why we need insurance it's real obvious you have no clue at all about what you are trying to talk about.

So you wouldn't have insurance on your vehicles (when ya get old enough to drive) if they get stolen,,, oh well......really?

So you don't anybody who has told you just how lucky they were to have health insurance? Really?

Have a house, some vehicles, a wife with some kids and no insurance. Dude, hahahahahaha!!!!

While in college I worked part time supporting an insurance agent so I got to know it pretty well. I have great insurance (even an umbrella policy) and I'm basically to the point where financial ruin is nearly impossible for me. I know I pay for it and may never need it again (the odds of having 2 houses burn down is pretty low).

I do the high deductible health plan at work. My company contributes like 2,500 a year and max out to the HSA is 7k a year. Over the past 2 years it's netted an extra 10k I've been able to put in the SP 500 fund which can be used anytime for qualifying expenses or anything at all I think when I hit 60 (though that will be worth probbaly 200k in 20 years).

Anyways, it's beyond absurd to not have basic homeowners, auto liability, and health insurance.

You got it, the trick about health insurance is that deductable. The bigger that deductable the cheaper the premium. No need to try and cover everything, just what would financially hurt.

Same with your vehicles, you can handle a 1000 bucks fender bender.

Just worry about the big $$$$$$ you can't handle. Here ya need that insurance.

Anyone not seeing that has never stayed in a hospital or had a car stolen.

Beyond absurd, it is irresponsible to not have at least basic levels of insurance to cover catastrophic events.

So, where is this place in the US where government won’t step in to subsidize in case of natural disaster?

natural disaster could strike anywhere.

any place, even in places that’s low risk could get struck by some type of disaster.

Give us an example of places to live.

and are you suggesting the entire population to move there?

man, some of your thinking is just asinine.

100%.

it’s hard to comprehend where brien evans and anyone who agree with him on this point is thinking.

basically, can’t live anywhere with natural disaster risk where government helps. I’m still trying to wrap my head on where everybody is supposed to live. Basically, going by his stance, can’t live in California(fire, earthquake), Texas(ice storm, hurricane, drought), Florida(hurricane), indiana(tornado, flooding), north carolina(hurricane, tropical storm), new york(winter storm, flooding, storm).

those are just naming few places. There are literally no places that’s risk free where government assistance could be needed.

it’s pretty asinine to think about this.

Centro

You're confusing disaster response with property insurance.

FEMA provides disaster response nationwide. Separate to that, they sell subsidized flood insurance specifically to property owners in certain flood zones, often in cases where private companies will not. This is NFIP. You will probably not be shocked to learn that this insurance program loses billions.

Of course natural disaster can strike anywhere. That is what why you should buy insurance. If an insurance company can offer you a reasonably protective policy, and make money in the process, then you have chosen a fine place to live.

Good ole Brien also leaves out the fact that banks require people to have homeowner's insurance at least during the under 20% equity portion of the loan. I admittedly don't know the requirements beyond that, but that's a significant portion of homeowners in that category.

I think the scam with insurance is that you can pay it for years and then get penalized for actually using it. For example, get in your first car accident in 20 years and they raise your rates. Once, we had a pipe burst in our basement and it flooded a bit. Insurance adjusted came out and estimated the damage at $1000 (it was an unfinished basement) and we got a check for $1000. Then we got a notice that they raised our insurance rate by $1000, we would have been better off never filing a claim.

IMO it would be reckless for most homeowners to not have homeowner's insurance, regardless of their mortgage balance.

Where I seem to agree with Brien: If you want to buy a house in a flood-prone area, and private insurance companies won't even quote you flood insurance, you should probably take a step back and reconsider whether it makes sense to make your home there.